In article <3m4ogd$e47 at news0.cybernetics.net>,
REECE_D <REECE+_D%A1%Electromagnetic_Sciences at mcimail.com> wrote:
->
-> Two questions:
->
-> 1) Is there a way to have a module execute up to a point, ask the
user
->for input and then continue?
Yes. Input["prompt"] does it.
-> 2) How does one take a list of roots returned from
-> Table[FindRoot[eq, i], {i,x0,x1,di}] and return only the unique roots?
->
->The problem I am encountering is that FindRoot will return two or more
->versions of the same root so Union sees them as distinct while in reality
->they are approximations to the same root. I've tried N[] and
->SetPrecision[] with no luck.
->
You can specify your own comparison function for the option SameTest in
Union. For example:
In[1]:= s = Table[ FindRoot[ x^3 - 2x == 0, {x, i} ], {i, -3, 3} ]
Out[1]= {{x -> -1.41421}, {x -> -1.41421}, {x -> -1.41421},
{x -> 0.}, {x -> 1.41421}, {x -> 1.41421}, {x -> 1.41421}}
(*note repeated roots*)
In[2]:= stest[ {Rule[ x_, n_ ]}, {Rule[ y_, m_ ]} ] := x === y && n == m
In[3]:= Union[ s, SameTest -> stest ]
Out[3]= {{x -> -1.41421}, {x -> 0.}, {x -> 1.41421}} (*repetitions gone*)
-> I am trying to write a module which will calculate a characteristic
->equation, plot it, prompt the user for approximate distance between roots
->and then return the first n roots. I could eliminate the plot and prompt
->if I knew of a robust method to calculate the first n roots of the
->characteristic equation.
I take it from context that (a) you are only interested in real roots and
(b) Solve[] isn't doing the job for you. If you have a priori knowledge of
a finite interval containing all roots, you could eliminate the plot/prompt
cycle by doing a grid search of the interval until you find either a sign
change (indicating a root of odd multiplicity) or a function value "near"
zero (indicating a root, possibly of even multiplicity), then applying
FindRoot to that interval to nail a root, then dividing x - root out of the
characteristic polynomial (reducing the degree by one), and repeating until
either the degree gets down to 4 (Solve does quartics exactly, I think) or
you fail to find a sign change before hitting some minimal mesh size.
(BTW, in the mesh search, I would suggest progressively bisecting all
subintervals rather than doing a left-to-right search on the final mesh; I
suspect successive bisection would be quicker, although I wouldn't swear to
it.) This is not fool-proof: if two roots are very close together, or
worse yet you have a repeated root with even multiplicity, you could miss
them (it?), and a function value "near" 0 does not guarantee a root nearby.
Paul
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